Like the 20th Century Never Happened

Intrigued by the Stead which I’ve never heard of. Might pick that up.

Miklós Bánffy's Transylvanian Trilogy fits in nicely here I think: three volumes, each about 600 pages, family saga and the dying days of the Austro Hungarian empire feel very 19th century politicswise.

I'm not sure about the Ferrante! I feel like there's an emphasis on subjectivity, perhaps even unreliable narrators, that makes it v 20th century to me, but I'm having trouble articulating it.

I've not read The Man Who Loved Children, but the Steads I have read definitely incorporated (or acknowledged) certain 'modernist techniques'. For example, the treatment of dialogue and interior consciousness in Cotter's England.

Feel like Donna Tartt was definitely reaching for this with The Little Friend and The Goldfinch. And if you will permit more speculative genres, Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy - aside from the fact that it's about terraforming Mars it absolutely reads like a 19th century doorstopper, with large scale events viewed mostly through the lens of a small group of characters.

Of the ones in the poll I've only read Stead and Ferrante, I appreciated more than enjoyed Stead.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I've read only the Ferrante and the Laxness and neither feels 19th century to me at all.

Voted Tanizaki.

I've read all of these bar Anniversaries, where I've only finished the first (of four) books. Intend to get on with this shortly.

I have also felt that, while all of these books are wonderful that a bit of fatigue set in all of them bar Ferrante (which as Daniel said does indeed feel different). I needed a bit of something else that you find when reading more modernistic literature.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

This post on Anniversaries was a bit rushed/not too well organised (when you want to post you post).

Please use the receptacle provided: What are you reading as 2023 begins?

I would say that, having finished this now it should not have been included as a poll option. Over the duration that you are with it the effect of the past and present co-mingling is quite light overall if you compare it to Proust or something more contemporary. However it's not nothing either. I like how he massages time and the two locations (sometimes more than two).